Tuesday, 6 May 2014

A Long Weekend in London

When you live in two places, you also have twice the amount of housework to deal with. And whether we stay in Homebase 1 or Homebase 2, one of us is always in "work mode": I work in Homebase 1 and my husband in Homebase 2. So, we sometimes take a little time off from the daily grind and go on a mini-break somewhere where there is no laundry waiting to be done or work piling up. And as London is just an hour's train ride away from Homebase 2, it has become our favourite quick getaway.
And yes, we often stay the night (or two, or three) instead of trying to catch the last high-speed... And if we've both been very busy working (as is the case most days), any excuse will do for us to escape the 'countryside' for the big city: on Thursday Professor M had a work-related event in London, and I wanted to check out the Intelligence Squared debate at Selfridges; on Friday I had made plans to see a friend; and for Saturday we had tickets to an exhibition. So it sort of made sense to stay until Sunday, when we both had planes to catch (back to Homebase 1 for me, and Germany for Professor M).

HOW TO LOOK HOT AT 100, organised by Intelligence Squared as part of the Selfridges Beauty Project was a panel discussion chaired by Deborah Bull, with speakers Ari Seth Cohen, Anne Karpf, Pam Lucas, Inge Theron and Jean Woods offering us their views and answering questions by the audience.
Some interesting questions were raised: will the current media focus on stylish elderly ladies lead to social pressure on all women to remain thin and fashionable in their old age, or is the 'invisibility' of older women actually a blessing that frees women from such social pressures? And why is fashion made for the young when it is the older women who have more money to spend? And why is advertising 'aspirational', i.e. why are clothes designed with the 40+ / 50+ / 60+ women in mind still marketed using teenage models?

Yes, interesting questions indeed.

Just browsing the fabulous designer fashions after the discussion, I came across this little performance:

On Saturday we went to see the Matisse Cut-Outs at Tate Modern. I can't be bothered with big museums as I find them rather tedious and time-consuming, but I love going to galleries and exhibitions. And Matisse was just as interesting as I expected, although it was a bit crowded. I have to remember to book tickets for a weekday next time...

As the weather was just perfect, we took our time walking across Millennium Bridge, admiring the river view. Now look at the house in the middle of the picture here: it has all the colours of sunrise. I wonder what it is. Maybe some lucky people live there...

By the way, how do you like my new sunglasses? I took them out for a 'test drive'. I don't quite know what to wear them with, they're quite wild and a bit of a departure from my usual style...

3 comments

Interesting discussion indeed! I feel that media has played us well.. to the point that every woman would feel the pressure of having to keep up with today's 'b***s**t' be it a bit or a lot. I actually love your new shades.. tortoise shell is a classic (are they tortoise shell or leopard print? I see tortoise shell from here)

Yes, I think it's about time we redefine beauty as a bit more inclusive when it comes to age, size, body type and personal sense of style. I am so tired of seeing these identikit young things everywhere...I thought the glasses were leopard print.... But might be tortoise shell on closer look. In any case, the colour is totally new for me, and I don't usually go for pattern. But I just had to have this pair...